COMPARISONS
In contrasting my life of the present with that of the underworld I
am struck by the similar characters inhabiting both. The men of the
underworld are little different from those living a legitimate life.
They are possessed of the same emotions. They work and love with the
same intensity of purpose as do their brothers of the moral life. They
have their ideals too. Strip the thief of his propensity to steal,
and you develop a character of genuinely wholesome quality. The idea
that the denizen of the underworld is a character different from the
rest of society is a fallacious one. Lombroso, from his scientific
deductions, may tell you that the criminal is one of a distinct class,
differentiated from the rest of mankind. But I say to you, out of an
experience of over seventeen years, that the peculiar conformation of
an ear isn’t necessarily a sign of criminal depravity. I know the men
of whom I speak. I know their strength and some of their weaknesses. I
know their vices and some of their virtues. In the life of the elect
I have never met an angel; in the underworld I have yet to meet a man
absolutely bad.
The great fact in the formation of criminal tendencies, to my mind
at least, is environment. If this is so, then the society is in part
responsible for the crime existing. A vast number of folks believe
that the criminal is born so. They point to the son or daughter of
criminal and vicious parents as proof of their reasoning. But when they
do so they forget the force of the environment surrounding the child
from its birth. That to me is the essential factor. I know a son of a
thief who developed into a professional man of no mean standing. Why?
Because at an early date he was adopted into the home of respectable
and honest folk. In this environment, colored by love, he developed
those faculties which afterward made him succeed. I can understand
certain physical characteristics being transmitted to the children, but
for the life of me I cannot understand the transmission of thought. And
morality to me is nothing if not a condition of the mind.
The factors partial to viciousness and crime are many. There are the
great economic factors, such as insufficiency of work and lack of wage.
Both are conducive to poverty and mendicancy, which in themselves are
productive of an adverse environment. The slums exist mainly because
of some error in the economic laws of the land. By reason of the slums
other factors are produced, all fundamental in the production of crime.
It has been the universal rule in making up statistics of crime to
place drink as the fundamental _cause_ of most of it. Rather than being
the great _cause_ I am inclined to think that it is the great _excuse_
of the criminal world. Every man convicted of error naturally endeavors
to “excuse” that error. And what better excuse or palliative is there
than drink? It has gotten to be a habit with some people to look
upon drink as indeed an honest excuse. No one knows this better than
the criminal, and in giving drink as the cause of his falling he but
follows the rule of the natural man.
I do not believe drink to be that great cause of crime which it is
reported to be. Of course all drinking men are not criminals, yet
neither are all criminals drinking men. Indirectly, though, drink is a
big cause. The environment of the saloon, rather than drink itself, is
what strikes me as being the great factor in producing the criminal.
The saloons exist by reason of the permission of the State, and by
reason of this fact the State stands responsible for a good part of the
crime committed as a result of the saloon’s influence.
It would be impossible, as it would be useless for me to endeavor to
indicate all the causes that produce crime. In my mind the center of
the evil is reached, and promising work is done when we look toward
a betterment of social conditions in the slums and poverty-stricken
districts of the city. Reforms made here will soon make themselves
felt in other areas. It is Utopian to believe that crime will ever
be entirely obliterated in this life. Even believing this as true,
the fact remains that by right methods, and human understanding, a
considerable part of the underworld can be brought to see the Light.